1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wagering games. More particularly, the present invention relates to a group of games where there is one hand or value commonly called the “Dealer hand”, at least one and possibly more than one hand or value commonly called the “player hand”, and wagers are decided by comparing each player hand to the Dealer hand.
2. The Prior Art
Numerous wagering games are known in the prior art. Many of them involve the parties each being given a hand, which consists of a group of cards, tiles, or other gaming pieces. This invention involves games where one of these hands is designated the “Dealer” hand. In some cases, this hand is called the “Player/Dealer hand” or the “Bank Hand”. In addition, a number of players can each have their own player hand. Players wager on their own player hand and the outcome of the wager is decided by comparing the player hand to the Dealer hand according to a criterion specified by the rules of the game.
The description of the invention discusses the Dealer and the players having “hands”. While a “hand” is normally considered to consist of a collection of playing cards, the word “hand” is used for convenience, and is not intended to restrict the invention to games played with collections of playing cards. For the purposes of this invention, a “hand” can also be a collection of tiles or dominos, the outcome of throwing one or more dice, or any other way of assigning a value to a Dealer and players to decide wagers between them.
There are two major types of games involving a Dealer hand. In one group there is always one Dealer hand and one player hand. The best-known example of this is traditional baccarat. Games where only one player hand is allowed do not fall within the field of this invention.
The other type of game involving a Dealer hand allows more than one player hand. These games comprise the field of this invention. Some of the most common games involving a Dealer hand and multiple player hands are Blackjack, Pai Gow, Pai Gow Poker, EasyPoker, Pan 9, and Fast 9.
In jurisdictions where banking games are allowed, typically the casino or the establishment operating the game (“the house”) funds the Dealer hand. A banking game is a game where the casino plays an active role in the games and makes a profit by collecting losing wagers from the players. The casino pays all winning wagers. The casino collects all losing wagers. And a casino employee makes all playing decisions involving the Dealer hand, typically according to a set of playing rules.
In jurisdictions where banking games are not allowed, players take turns acting as Dealer. In some other jurisdictions, one or more players may be agent(s) of the house, but other players may also take their turn to be Dealer. In all these cases, each time the game is played, a player is designated as “Player/Dealer”, and puts up a wager, and receives a hand. All other players make a wager and receive a hand. They are trying to beat the hand of the Player/Dealer. If the player wins, the player is paid from the Player/Dealer's wager, if there is sufficient money to pay the Player. If the player loses, the player loses his/her wager to the Player/Dealer, if the Player/Dealer's wager was sufficient to cover the player's wager. Usually there are some circumstances that are defined as a “push”, and when this occurs, no money changes hands.
When a wager on the Dealer hand is allowed, the wager is against all the player hands, if the wager is large enough to cover all the wagers on the player hands. If the wager on the Dealer hand is not large enough to cover all the player hands, it is a wager against one or more of the player hands, but it is not specifically against one player hand. A random event, such as the value of a card or the throw of one or more dice is used to decide the order of settling wagers. So if a player makes a wager on the Dealer hand that is not large enough to cover all of the bets on player hands, he does not know which player hand(s) he is wagering against, when he makes the wager.
There are many variations of how the Player/Dealer's wager is funded. Two or more parties may share equally in funding the wager. Two or more parties may make separate wagers, where the second or third wager only comes into play when wagers equal to the size of the first Player/Dealer wager have been settled. Also players wagering against the Player/Dealer may combine their funds to wager on a hand or make separate wagers on a hand.
In addition, there are different ways to fund wagers on the player hand. Usually, the player that makes the decision on a hand wagers on their own hand. However, in many casinos more than one player can wager on a particular player hand and a player can wager on more than one player hand.
For the purposes of this invention, the source of the funds and the makeup of the wagers are not significant. The key characteristic of these games is that all players are restricted to one or two types of wagers. In all jurisdictions, the player can wager that a particular player hand will rank higher than the Dealer's hand. In essence, they may bet that they can “beat the dealer”.
And in jurisdictions where there is a Player/Dealer, the player may wager on the Dealer hand against all the player hands. If a player wagers on the Dealer hand, his money is used to settle wagers against one player hand after another.
None of these games, as currently played, offer the opportunity to wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand. You can wager that the player hand will beat the Dealer hand, but not the reverse wager. You can wager that the Dealer hand will generally beat player hands, but not a specific player hand.
In addition, none of the wagering methods used in these games allow you to wager that a particular hand will tie or push with the Dealer hand.
There are many variations of blackjack. Some common variations add jokers to the deck; change the method for deciding who wins, particularly when one or both parties go over 21; change what a “natural” is, and some even change the target number from 21 to 22 or some other value. The field of the invention includes all these variations.
Pai Gow is played with a set of tiles with markings. Each player makes a wager and then receives four tiles. In addition, another four-tile hand is given to the Dealer.
The player divides the four tiles into a pair of two-tile groups. The house or Player/Dealer tiles are also divided into a pair of two-tile groups. Each two-tile player group is compared to one of the two-tile house or Player/Dealer groups according to a ranking scheme for the pairs of tiles. The higher-ranked group is compared to the higher-ranked Dealer group, and the two lower-ranked groups are compared. If both the player's groups beat both the Dealer groups, the player wins an amount equal to his/her wager. If both of the Dealer groups are ranked higher than the player's groups, then the player loses his/her wager to the Dealer. If one is ranked higher and one is ranked lower, then it is a “push” and no money changes hands.
Pai Gow Poker is similar to Pai Gow, but it is played with a deck of conventional playing cards and each player receives seven playing cards. Each party divides his cards into a group of two cards and a group of five cards, and these groups are compared according to the traditional rankings of poker hands. Again, if both groups of either party have a higher ranking than the corresponding groups of the other player, that party wins the wager. Otherwise it is a push.
Pan 9 and variations such as Fast 9 are card games where players are trying to each get as close as possible to a target value of 9. The Dealer and other players are each dealt three cards, and each party has the option to add a fourth card to his/her hand. The values of the cards are added up with face cards counting zero, aces counting one, and all other cards counted at face value. Only the last digit of the hand value is used, so a value of 14 or 24 is counted as a value of four. Pan 9 and it's variations are played with decks of cards with the 7, 8, 9 and 10s removed.
All of these games share the same basic wagering method. You can bet that a particular player hand will beat the Dealer hand. And in some cases you can wager on the Dealer hand against all the player hands. However, you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand, and you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will push with or tie a particular player hand.
Traditional Baccarat provides these options. A player can bet on the Dealer hand (typically called the Bank Hand) or a player can wager on the player hand. In addition, the player can wager that the two hands will tie. However, in Baccarat, there is exactly one Dealer hand and exactly one player hand. In traditional Baccarat, there is never more than one player hand. As a result, this traditional form of Baccarat falls outside of the field of this invention.
There are variations of Baccarat where there can be more than one player hand, but the wagering method is the same as the other games in the field of this invention. A wager on a particular player hand is allowed. A wager on the Dealer hand against all player hands is involved. However, you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand, and you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will push with or tie a particular player hand. These variations would fall within the field of the invention.
In the field of the invention, when the game is played with a Player/Dealer, there is frequently an additional bet allowed called a “buy bet”. This bet occurs when a player wants more action than the other players at the table are willing to provide. This player pays another player to make a wager and the person “buying” the wager takes the other side of the bet. Typically, the Player/Dealer pays another party to wager that a particular hand will beat the Player/Dealer hand. This allows the Player/Dealer to, in essence, make a wager that a particular hand will lose to the Dealer hand. The Player/Dealer must pay another player to make this wager. Players other than the Player/Dealer can also buy a wager on a hand and put up a wager on the Player/Dealer hand.